Winter Night
Chapter 6
It seemed to take an eternity, but the door finally cracked open and a rat faced little man holding two hooked daggers stuck his head in and then ducked back out.
The assassin was replaced by four big bruisers who approached Madara first since he was closest to the door. He forced himself to be as relaxed as possible. And when they grabbed him, he pretended that he was too out of it to resist as another set of four large men crept up to Hashirama's hammock.
The Senju followed his lead- also withholding the urge to fight back. And before a single word was spoken, they were dragged up on deck, with Madara in the lead.
While he was pretending to be incapacitated his eyes were busy taking stock of everything in spite of the darkness. The ship that had pulled up beside them was actually a large, wooden vessel with huge billowing sails and while he couldn't see any cannons, he wouldn't be at all surprised if there were over two dozen of them on each side. He hadn't expected even pirates to actually use an old fashioned pirate ship!
But, upon closer inspection, there were pipes and electrical wiring on board- meaning it had been carefully upgraded. Converted into some sort of a hybrid that had a large engine and yet was still set to sail the open waters.
"Well, well," A man stepped up to Madara and grabbed hair as the four men continued to hold him up. "Looks like the legendary Uchiha Madara is a little overrated. The wonders of a little Snaga venom, eh boys?"
But the pirate was startled when Madara smashed his head into the man's nose and smirked. The idiot howled in pain and crumpled to the deck of the fishing boat. But Madara had already whirled, throwing his large captors off like they were ragdolls. He kept a tiny scroll in the seam of his civilian shirt and pulled it out, summoning a sword from it. He caught the sword with a graceful flourish and smirked.
"Are you sure about that?" Madara purred, circling the man who had dared to touch his hair. He looked behind him at his lover and rolled his eyes. "Hashirama? What the hell are you doing?"
Hashirama was still hanging limply in the arms of the men who had dragged him up onto the deck. "I'm fine. It just looked like you were having fun. I didn't want to interrupt."
"Idiot."
"And what the fuck are the rest of you dumbasses waiting for?" The pirate captain who was finally picking himself up off the deck shouted. "Get them! We need to get back to the islands! The warlords will pay handsomely for our hard work!"
About ten feet away, Hashirama picked his head up curiously. "Wait- what warlords?"
"The ones fighting over the Land of Crystal, of course! Every pirate ship in the region has been taking people there to work the mines for weeks! Did you really think that the warlords didn't know that the islanders asked your village for help? They weren't expecting either of you to come personally, of course. But they sent us to keep an eye out for anyone from Konoha. And thanks to these friends of ours, you fell right into our trap."
Hashirama threw the men who had been holding him off with a growl. He stalked over to the man who was doing all of the talking and picked him up by his throat. "Tell us about those warlords. Who are they, what are their names?"
"T-That's something I don't know either! If we ask too many questions about the island we'll get pulled off of our boats and dragged into the mines too! But the one who sent me? That was the Baroness. Of the three warlords, she's the richest. But she has the fewest slaves to work the mines so she pays the most for new ones."
"The Baroness? What kind of a title is that?" Madara wondered. "Not that it matters, I guess. She's got to be stopped like the others."
A group of men wielding swords charged at him and Madara purred as he settled into the routine of combat. Striking again and again, killing each one like they were holding still.
Hashirama looked perturbed as he dropped the pirate he'd been talking to when he was attacked from behind. Madara would've used the captain as a human shield and let his own men kill him. But the Senju was too forgiving and kind to even think of it.
There were a lot of pirates on these ships! Almost two dozen were gathered at the rail of the big wooden ship and there were at least half as many more up in the rigging of the ship. Not to mention the dozen or so still standing on the fishing boat with them.
The ship's deck was quickly littered with bodies in various stages of defeat. Madara killed his opponents without even thinking about it. It was just a habit born from too many years at war. Never leave an opening for an unknown enemy to target your back. It was one of his father's first rules.
Hashirama on the other hand was surrounded by pirates laying on the deck moaning in pain or totally unconscious.
The pirate captain could see that things were rapidly getting out of control so he dashed across the deck to climb back onto his own ship. Madara activated the Sharingan and froze him in place just as the man paused to look over his shoulder.
"We're all going to the same place," Madara said, sweeping two more pirates aside like they were rag dolls as he prowled toward the boat captain. "You wouldn't want to leave without us, now would you?"
"Madara, don't kill him." Hashirama cautioned then looked around the smaller boat. "Where are our possessions- our bags?"
The crew of the fishing boat was huddled in the tiny wheelhouse and Akira scooted their luggage out of the wheelhouse and onto the deck of the ship. "I- uh… Sorry about this? You… uh, want your money back, right?"
Hashirama shook his head. "You only got half of what we agreed on. You can keep it for now. You've learned your lesson, right? But we'll be back and if you ever do this to anyone again, I will kill all three of you myself. Understood?"
The boatman and his crew nodded eagerly. "Y-Yes sir! N-Never ever again!"
Madara, meanwhile, was toying with the pirate captain. "We need a ride to the Land of Crystal so you and your men are going to take us there as fast as you can. I have a bet to collect on."
Hashirama blushed but handed Madara his bag. "Bastard…"
"W-What makes you think we're going to listen to you?" A young pirate up in the rigging asked. "You're still outnumbered fifty to one!"
"I was hoping you'd ask," Madara smirked and conjured a partial Susanoo around himself. It was only the head and chest and arms really, but it didn't matter. Even before it roared the remaining men on both ships all threw down their weapons and backed away from him. They stared at the menacing blue creature in equal parts shock and horror.
"What the hell are you guys?" Someone asked.
"We're shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village," Hashirama said. "Now let's be off. Take us to the Land of Crystal. No pit stops or deception." Then he grinned at Madara, "Show off."
"Me?" Madara shrugged as they jumped onto the much larger pirate ship. "You literally brought an entire cabin in the woods to life once!"
"Hey, it stopped your father's men from following us again, didn't it?"
"Yes, but that just meant I had to listen to Izuna bitch about babysitting me the whole way back to camp every day again. I still think we should've tried a little harder to get our brothers to be friends."
"Knowing you, by friends you actually mean lovers. I'm not sure Tobirama would've gone for that- as pretty as Izuna was…"
"Oh please," Madara snorted. "The Ice Princess isn't straight. He stares at me like he doesn't know whether to kill me or kiss me sometimes."
"Really- you think so? Well, he better not try either one," Hashirama grunted. "I've already given him Mito. He's not stealing you from me now too!"
"As if I'd want anyone but you, Idiot. Hopefully, he'll get laid at least once while we're gone. Izuna swore that Tobirama kissed him once- right after we saw each other again- I think we were 16. But your brother ran away because he never got over liking it."
"Well, Mito seemed very happy to have him. I'm pretty sure she won't let him out of bed for a day or two at least. But… Tobi kissed Izuna? Are you serious? Why didn't you tell me that? We could have tried to get them together!"
"Izuna asked me not to. He was afraid it was because he wasn't good at kissing yet… You know since he didn't have anyone to practice with because the Ice Princess ran away?"
"That could be, but surely they knew there was nothing wrong with being curious… Well, whatever. So, when do you think these poor bastards will try to get the drop on us."
"Probably soon. They aren't used to dealing with shinobi. It probably hurts their pride that they chickened out so easily."
Hashirama nodded. "Agreed. I think we should have the captain take us on a little tour of the ship."
"Have your wood golem's hand carry him around as we go. That'll shake them up."
"We don't want them jumping out of the boat. We need them to sail this thing."
"We don't need all of them," Madara shrugged.
"You're terrible," Hashirama sighed, shaking his head. "But, I guess that's true if they get out of line…"
They went to the ship's helm. The captain and his men parted, giving them a wide berth.
"Since we're going to be stuck together for a while, we've decided we would like an introduction and a tour of this vessel. And we won't be pleased if you leave anything out..." Hashirama smiled pleasantly.
Madara stood back and watched. He kept his senses attuned to the men around the helm rather than the group at the helm. He was waiting for even the slightest hint of someone summoning their chakra.
The pirate captain nodded reluctantly. "My name's Captain Whitehall. This is my First Mate, Lucky." The First Mate was in fact the assassin with the two hooked daggers they'd seen earlier. He was even uglier in the moonlight. His face was badly scarred and he had no hair on his tattooed head.
The captain turned to the man on his left, a tall, heavily muscled black man. "The Quartermaster here is Flint."
The captain continued. "The Engineer isn't up here right now but his name is Rai."
"Come. Let's meet the Head Gunner, Boomer."
As Hashirama moved to follow the captain, someone threw a kunai at his back with an explosive tag attached to it. Madara knocked it out of the air with one of his own and smirked as he caught it and threw it back- without the explosive tag.
Madara's throw was deadly accurate. The idiot who threw it was still busy grinning to himself when the kunai plunged into his forehead. At the same instant the explosive tag harmlessly turned to ash in Madara's gloved hand. "Anyone else?"
The body of the man bobbled and then fell out of the rigging and landed on the deck with a sickening crunch. The captain looked mortified. "G-Gentlemen please understand that he was not acting under my orders. This is kind of an unruly bunch at times and they get a little excited around new people."
"Yeah, right. New people? Are these idiots men or puppies to you? If they were my men they'd never act without orders outside of battle." Madara snorted. He wasn't going to mention his clan's politics because that was always kept quiet from outsiders. But publicly or on the battlefield no one would ever dare question him.
Madara rolled the corpse onto its back and was surprised to note the thin green lines of tattoos on its forehead around his kunai that was dead center in the pattern. "Hashi- look. Lesser branch of the Hyuga- probably only about fifteen years old. Don't see them pop up very often- especially not alone like this. Bastards enslave their own children. They would never let one go like this."
Hashirama looked surprised as he turned around. "Actually, they've asked to join us in the village. Didn't Tobirama tell you that last week?"
"As if he will ever willingly tell me anything, Idiot. And you're not going to accept them- are you?"
"Well-"
"Are you kidding? Wasn't our village supposed to be about freedom and-"
"We'll talk about that later," Hashirama said stiffly.
Madara would've liked to slug him. But he just scowled and followed at a distance as they went below the main deck.
The tour slowed down as they reached the living quarters and the bowels of the ship. Obviously they were reluctant to show them everything. When they approached the largest section of the ship's hold there was the overwhelming stench of unwashed bodies.
Hashirama forced his way in and gasped in horror at what he saw. There were people in here. There were buckets that were too full of shit and piss to be emptied. At least thirty men, women and children were packed into the massive cage in front of them. Everyone in the cage was sick and malnourished. Rats and huge cock roaches were everywhere. No doubt the pests were over running the rest of the ship too- especially the galley.
Madara rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure why the Senju was surprised by this. The pirates had already admitted that they were making a delivery of people to the warlords. How did he think they were kept? In nice, neat hotel rooms?
"Let them out of there." Hashirama growled. "Now!"
The pirate captain shook his head. "No. There are already too many people aboard-"
Hashirama grasped him by the throat and slammed him into the bars of the giant cell. "That was not a request! These people are dying! And you were going to put us in there too?"
The pirate captain was barely conscious after hitting the bars so hard but Hashirama was beyond caring. "Then turn around and take us to Minseok. There we can let them all go."
"We'll be turned away from the island if we don't have any cargo!"
"Then some of your men are going to be pretending to be slaves when we arrive on the island." Madara said.
"That won't work, these bastards know how many men I have and you've killed 22 of them already."
"You're lucky that any of you are still breathing," Hashirama sighed. "At least unlock the door so that I can heal them. I'll stay down here with them for now."
The captain nodded. "They will be worth more if they are healthy. I suppose-"
Hashirama growled, shoving him back into the bars. "You won't be selling anyone. I think we should toss you bastards overboard and see how many of your prisoners know how to sail!"
The captain almost laughed. "None of them will know how to sail a ship of this size, you idiot. Not with this many sails and those engines we showed you. You need us."
Madara smirked. "You should be careful, captain. Because we don't need all of you."
"Dara, go tell Tater that we need to bake some bread or rice for the people in the cage and then keep an eye on the rest of the crew."
Madara nodded. Anything richer than bread or rice would make them sick. Most of the caged people were not even looking at them. Quite a few didn't even seem aware that they weren't alone anymore.
"These people need food and healing. Open the door to the cage, now. Captain or I'll dip you head first into every one of those slop buckets. Can't you see they're too weak to wander around the ship much less cause trouble?"
The captain hesitated and Hashirama got mad. Madara smirked as the lock was ripped off of the cage door by the hand of one of Hashirama's massive golems rising up out of the wooden floor.
The remaining pirates would have fled the room but Madara blocked their path. "Do you get it now? There won't be a place you can run to if either of us really get mad. I'll have some of these idiots bring buckets of fresh water down here. I'm sure these people would love to wash up even a little. Even at my father's worst, my clan didn't treat prisoners like this. This is disgusting."
"You can't- or our rain barrel will run dry!" The captain shouted.
Madara growled. "I will refill it as many times as it takes for you bastards to clean up that cage. Now you worms, get in there and start dumping those buckets! Hashirama and Captain Whitehall, don't let these bastards stop working on cleaning things up in there until every one of those buckets are empty and every inch of the floor has been scrubbed."
"Alright," Hashirama nodded, taking a small child by the hand and he could feel that she had a fever. She was very weak and he led her out of the cage to examine her.
"Who are you?" She asked, her large, pale green eyes filled with tears.
"My name is Hashirama, what's yours?"
"I'm Sakura. M-My mom and dad both died and got thrown overboard..."
"You're a very brave girl, Sakura. My friend and I don't have parents anymore either. Maybe after this crazy mission is over you and the others trapped here can come and live in our village."
"Y-You have your own village?" She asked.
"Yes. We do. It's small now, but it's going to be a safe place for children to grow up. For right now you have a lung infection. When they bring some water, go wash up as well as you can and then try to take a nap. I've healed you as much as I can for now. Oh, and send someone else out here so I can heal them too."
"Yes, sir." The child said as she went back to the cage. Hashirama noticed a pair of curious faces watching him from the throng of other people.
"Sakura, who are those two little boys?"
"Thomas and Kiran!" The girl said.
As the pirates began carrying clean buckets of water back into the room, the two little boys approached Hashirama cautiously.
They weren't much older than Sakura and like her they were too thin for their height. The taller of the two was swarthy skinned and had long black hair that lay over his right shoulder in a ponytail. He had the most stunning green eyes that Hashirama had ever seen. The other boy was pale skinned and had blonde hair and blue eyes.
"So, you saw my father's letters after all?" The darker skinned child asked. His eyes were very intelligent and surprisingly calm for his age stuck in a place like this.
"Your father sent us those letters?"
"Yes. I am Kiran, son of Aron, clan leader of the Shalua. I wasn't supposed to deliver it. But I snuck out after my sister. She was killed protecting me instead of trying to reach you. I brought the letter to your village but I didn't count on these bastards picking me up on my way home."
"You snuck into our village without being seen?"
Hashirama chuckled as the child nodded. "My people live in the jungle. My cat and I were able to get in and out in seconds. I spent four hours trying to decide where to leave the letter."
"Your cat?"
The boy took a little black kitten out of the folds of his clothes and his eyes welled up with tears. "She is dying. She protected me from the pirates. But it wasn't enough. We were still dragged from our boat and put here."
Hashirama was startled when he realized the little green eyed black kitten spoke to him telepathically. "Don't worry about me. Others here need your help more than I do."
"Lie still," Hashirama said. "Let me heal you. This isn't your natural form, is it?"
The cat seemed surprised but nodded. "I am a leopard. In the Shalua clan each child is given a companion when they are born. Kiran is mine. I would die for him."
The wound from the cutlass was deep but not too deep for Hashirama's healing ability. A few seconds later the cut across her belly was healed. "I see that. Among my clan's allies there are clans who have massive dogs bonded to them. And my friend's clan has ninja cats. But I never imagined a fully grown leopard accompanying a child."
"You healed Asha?" The boy flung his arms around Hashirama's neck before scooping the cat back into his arms. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"
The boy named Thomas had a cut on his forehead and one on his leg. Both were massively infected. But Hashirama healed those too.
"Wow! I never imagined someone could heal other people so quickly," Kiran said. "Can you teach me? My clan has regenerative abilities based on our respect for the jungle, but it can't heal others. And Asha couldn't use her ability to Lick Wounds because the sword she was hit with was poisoned."
"Yes, well we're both lucky. My Mokton powers are unique where we come from too. No one there knows how I got them either. Unfortunately that means I can't teach it- it's just something I've always known I can do. Captain go and find out what is taking so long with the food. These people are starving and so am I."